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Visitors to the Utah Arts Festival stride across concrete promenades and grassy lawns sprawled out between fountains and modern buildings, which have glass walls that reflect the fest’s vibrant paintings and eclectic sculptures. Since its inception more than 35 years ago, the four-day festival has taken over a multiblock radius to accommodate hundreds of visual artists, musicians, performers, and culinary artists, each celebrating modern art and the local community. Throughout indoor and outdoor exhibitions, visitors explore varied works of visual art represented through special exhibitions and hands-on workshops with featured artists. A marketplace also gives artists a place to sell their paintings, wearable art, and sculptures to help disseminate their crafts and raise enough money for van Gogh’s ghost to move out of their basements.
Musicians score the festival throughout its days with worldwide genres on several outdoor stages, and storytellers and other literary artists tickle ears with eclectic tales and recitations of the UN staff directory. Across the grounds, festival staffers recycle the fete’s discarded plastic, aluminum, and cardboard as well as food scraps and vegetable oil, and promote eco-friendly practices with a protected bicycle lot and bike valet.

Mickey and Minnie, Scarlett and Rhett, Jack and Rose?all classic cinematic pairs. During their travels throughout the northwest, friends Dave and Matt discovered one more: beer and film. They brought this concept back to Salt Lake City in 1997 when they opened Brewvies Cinema Pub, giving movie lovers a place to take in a flick while sipping one of 19 beers on tap. These include locally brewed options from Epic Brewing Company and Uinta Brewing.
Beer in hand, patrons ages 21 and up can settle in and watch exhilarating blockbusters or smaller, critically acclaimed films on one of the theater's four screens. Brewvies Cinema Pub even indulges more eclectic tastes with special screenings of classic movies as well as cult favorites. To complement their beer, patrons can grab a quick bite from the concession stand, which features everything from hummus plates and coconut shrimp to 10-inch pizzas and pulled-pork sandwiches smothered in a homemade honey-chipotle barbecue sauce.

Within Clark Planetarium's space-exploration-themed facility, the interactive displays and immersive IMAX and planetarium shows enlighten visitors with interesting scientific facts. Spread out across 10,000 square feet, more than 15 hands-on exhibits entrance guests with artifacts such as photos from the Hubble Space Telescope and a moon rock brought back from the Apollo 15 mission.
Audio in the ATK IMAX Theatre emanates from a 14,000-watt digital surround-sound system as the 70-foot wide, five-story-high screen accommodates Hollywood hits and insightful documentaries in 3-D. More entertainment abounds in the Hansen Dome Theatre, where six high-definition projectors fill the 55-foot domed screen with seamless images during scientific films and cosmic light shows.

The Salt Lake Film Society promotes diverse, thoughtful film exhibition and supports film creation. It operates and maintains the historic Tower Theatre and Broadway Centre Cinemas, using those venues to screen artistic, American-independent, and foreign-language films, as well as to host events and programs that enrich the community. A yearlong membership to the SLFS at the Super 8 level provides numerous benefits, including two complimentary film admissions, four discount admissions, two free Tower video rentals, an SLFS T-shirt, priority purchase privileges for events, free admission to six annual members-only sneak peek screenings, and more.

Every year, the Utah Film Center lights up screens with a full schedule of more than 170 free programs. Independent, classic, and documentary films flicker to life at locations across Salt Lake City, each handpicked for cinematic excellence, social importance, and high frequency of dance battles. Screenings often end with illuminating discussions with filmmakers or other visiting artists.
Members can deepen their cinematic immersion with tickets to advance studio screenings, access to the lending library, and invitations to pre-showing receptions. The celluloid aficionados also host a number of festivals throughout the year, concentrating on children’s films and LGBT issues.

The silver screens at Showstar Cinemas 6 flicker to life with first-run Hollywood blockbusters, but that’s not the only thing drawing in movie buffs to this locally owned and operated theater. Special events bring old classic favorites, such as The Little Rascals, back to the big screen, while 3-D movies allow viewers to imagine themselves in the middle of the latest heart-pumping action film. To help kid’s feel extra special on their birthdays, Showstar Cinemas 6 also designs party packages that include putting the honoree’s name on the marquee and welcoming up to 30 of their closest friends for a private screening of a kid-friendly flick or a slideshow of their least embarrassing baby pics.